VIA ships C7-M ULV with Intel-like model numbers

ULV for UMPC, says VIA

VIA has begun mass production of an ultra-low voltage version of its C7-M mobile processor, the Taiwanese chip maker said late last week, allowing it on the ultra-mobile PC bandwagon and target Intel's performance-per-Watt strategy too. It's even adopted Pentium M-style 77x series model numbers for the CPU line.

The C7-M ULV is fabbed at 90nm by IBM using the chip maker's silicon-on-insulator process. The CPU is available at 1-1.5GHz speed grades, and at its lowest clock frequency consumes no more than 3.5W, VIA claimed. Idling, it consumes 0.1W, yielding what VIA called "unparalleled battery life".